Half of Aussies prefer platforms: Stripe
The use of businesses such as Uber, Deliveroo and Vinomofo has reached a tipping point, with a new study revealing 50 per cent of Australians already prefer to use these online marketplaces versus traditional businesses like taxis, restaurants or retailers. The study conducted by Nielsen across nine countries, which was commissioned by payments technology business Stripe, revealed that Australia was significantly ahead of markets such as the US and the UK when it comes to the uptake of marketplaces, but trailed Singapore, where 73 per cent of respondents said they preferred using marketplaces. The Stripe head of growth of Australia and New Zealand, Mac Wang, told The Australian Financial Review […]
Woolworths and Coles embracing digital wallets
Grocery retailers Woolworths and Coles are moving quickly to embrace digital payments as shoppers increasingly shop with their mobile phones and leave their wallets at home. After reaching agreement with Apple last September to store Woolworths Rewards loyalty card details on Apple’s digital wallet app, Woolworths has now extended the service to Google Pay. Android users can earn Woolworths Rewards points in Woolworths supermarkets and BWS liquor stores by tapping their smartphones. Woolworths said the move, a first in Australian supermarkets, would give more of its 11 million loyalty scheme members a simple and secure way to earn and redeem loyalty points in-store. Once rewards details are loaded, customers can […]
Breaking down blockchain’s potential for cross-border payments
By Simon Banks, Hyperwallet’s Managing Director and SVP of Asia-Pacific Blockchain has been labelled a disruptive force that could transform entire industries and even have potential to shake the foundations of economic and social systems. With the advent of cryptocurrencies, the banking and financial services sectors were among the first to feel its effects. In the payments space, it is important to separate the underlying distributed ledger technology from the cryptocurrency hype, and to understand the problems blockchain can solve, as well as the ways in which it can transform payments without disregarding barriers to implementation. Cross-border payments, a space that currently begets frustration but is increasingly dominated by innovative […]
Meet Lex Greensill and the fintech that’s Australia’s newest $2b unicorn
A supply chain financing company with its roots in regional Queensland, Greensill, has become the country’s next $1 billion-plus unicorn, thanks to a $US250 million ($336 million) capital injection from growth equity firm General Atlantic, which also creates the country’s newest rich listers. Greensill, founded in 2011 in London by Bundaberg-born farmer Lex Greensill, 41, provides businesses in industries from telecommunications to manufacturing with working capital based on their invoices, allowing them to be paid faster and fulfil the work, without shortening payment terms for buyers. The capital raise, which is the first for the previously bootstrapped company that had only taken capital from family and friends, values Greensill at […]
Explainer: What is Ripple?
Not just a poor man’s Bitcoin, the currency exchange network Ripple is the dark horse of fintech. Ripple is far more than simply a “poor man’s Bitcoin”. Despite the host of cryptocurrency copycats on the market right now, Ripple isn’t simply copying the status quo. This currency exchange and remittance network actually has a lot more complexity to it than first meets the eye. To help you wrap your head around Ripple, we’ve compiled a comprehensive guide to fintech’s most exciting cryptocurrency. Read on to find out everything you need to know about the enigmatic currency exchange service. What is Ripple? Ripple, the successor to Ripplepay, was released in 2012 as […]
Fintech Zip has hit cash flow break-even, its shares slip
Australian fintech Zip — the owner of the zipPay, zipMoney and Pocketbook brands — has hit cash flow break even right on target. In a business update, digital retail finance and payments player says revenue for the fourth quarter was $13.2 million, up 136% on the same three months last year. And Zip hit positive underlying cash from operating activities, after bad debt write-offs, of $700,000. However, Zip’s share price fell up to 3% in early trade. At the close, the shares were down 1% to $1.00. ZipMoney operates a “buy now, pay later, no interest” service and uses artificial intelligence and big data technologies to drive a credit and […]
Afterpay surges 20pc after earnings increase
Shares in Afterpay Touch gained as much as 20 per cent after the company said underlying sales has increased by almost 40 per cent to $736 million over the quarter. The buy now, pay later payments provider said group revenue for the 2018 financial year would be around $142 million while earnings before interest, tax depreciation and amortisation was forecast to be around $33 million to $34 million. Afterpay, which allows millennial consumers to pay for goods in instalments by charging merchants, said that $2.18 billion of underlying sales had been processed through its payment platform during the 2018 financial year. That is almost a threefold increase from the prior […]
Mastercard tries to make paying with virtual coins easier
Mastercard has landed a US patent for a payment system that would make it easier for people to quickly and securely settle transactions with cryptocurrencies. First reported by Coindesk, Mastercard said its proposed method would mean the payee assumed less risk in a cryptocurrency transaction, which could result in a higher acceptance of virtual coins by merchants. “It often takes a significant amount of time, around ten minutes, for a blockchain-based transaction to be processed, due to the computer processing time and resources required to verify and update the blockchain,” Mastercard said. “Conversely, traditional fiat payment transactions that are processed using payment networks often have processing times that are measured […]
